Hungarian Revolution of 1956

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October-10 November 1956) was a nationwide revolution against the communist and Soviet-backed Hungarian People's Republic that lasted for less than one month in the autumn of 1956. Student demonstrators marched on the parliament building in Budapest in response to the government's implementation of pro-Soviet policies, and the government detained the student delegation in the parliament building with the goal of quelling the uprising. However, Hungarian policemen fired on demonstrators, killing a young student, and the demonstrators wrapped him in a Hungarian flag, starting a major uprising.

Hungarian revolutionaries cut out the center of Hungarian flags to remove the communist imagery, and they rose up against the communist regime across the country. Thousands of protesters formed militias and fought against communist Hungarian troops and Soviet Army troops, executing and imprisoning pro-Soviet Hungarian communists and Soviet soldiers while arming freed political prisoners. Radical workers' councils led by Imre Nagy wrested power from the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP) and formed a new government, which announced its intent to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, Hungary was at peace, and the Soviet Union considered negotiating a withdrawal from the new communist country. However, Nikita Khrushchev later reconsidered and dispatched 31,550 Soviet Army troops and 1,130 tanks to crush the revolution, invading Hungary on 4 November. In the next few days, 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviets were killed, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. By January 1957, the Soviet government had suppressed all public dissent, and many western Marxists were alienated by the USSR's actions against the communist revolution in Hungary. In 1989, 23 October was declared a public holiday in Hungary.